Ethereal Site

Chuck O’Rear was driving to visit his girlfriend when he was struck by the beauty of the rolling vineyards. Many people would have carried on without bothering to stop and take a photograph.But the former National Geographic magazine photographer was so entranced by the green of the grass and the white clouds in the perfectly blue California sky that he pulled over and got out his camer. Never for a moment did he think the shot would become the most viewed image on the planet.He didn’t give much more thought to the picture after picking up girlfriend Daphne Larkin, who he married shortly after.

It was only when he got a call from his agent with the Corbis photo archive telling him that Microsoft wanted the original of the picture that he discovered he’d hit the jackpot.

‘I had no idea when I took the photograph that anything like that could happen. It is probably the most recognized photo on the planet. If you took it to some village in Bangladesh the might recognise it or you could stop somebody walking down the street in China and they may know what it is,’ he added.

Mr O’Rear, who began his career with the Kansas City Star and the Los Angeles Times, worked for 25 years for the National Geographic and now specialises in photographing winemaking in Napa and around the world. But unlike many PC users, he doesn’t get to see his XP photo every day – because he uses a Mac. The image has since made its way off of users’ computer and can be spotted in some of the most unexpected places. O’Rear himself has seen the image in the window of a restaurant in a Thai village and in the background of a TV interview with the Venezuelan president. So how much did O’Rear get for taking what is considered one of the most famous photos of all time? A non-disclosure agreement prevents him from revealing the actual figure, but according to Napa Valley Register, O’Rear stated that it was:“extraordinary” and second only to that paid to another living, working photographer for the photo of then-President Bill Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky. Taken with a medium format camera, the most surprising fact about the image is that O’Rear claims that it wasn’t digitally manipulated. Either way, the present day reality is a far cry from the idyllic image that Windows abandoned with the advent of Windows Vista.The Black History screensaver is a collection of over 100 images relating to African-American History in the United States.A few of the people and events depicted here are Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, Senator, Hiram Revels, Marcus Garvey, Mary Church Terrell, Adam Clayton Powell, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The Harper's Ferry insurrection, the underground. Free download of The Black History Screensaver 1.0, size 1.28 Mb.